Wednesday, October 10, 2012

I am a risotto fan, very much so. I really hate the stirring though, and I am too poor for a thermomix, so stir I do. It's always worth it.

I wanted to share this recipe from Veggie Mama along with my slight tweaks because it is one of the best risotto's I have had. In the history of ever. It was divine!

So I didn't know what or where to find these Heirloom tomatoes, so I just got the vine ripened tomatoes from Coles and they did the job nicely. Stuck them in a lightly sprayed with olive oil pan in a hot oven for an hour. Just kept an eye on them until they were slightly bursting, on the verge of collapse. Perfecto.

Meanwhile, I chopped an onion and minced 2 cloves of garlic and cooked them to soft in a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of nuttelex. Marg or butter is fine, I use nuttelex as standard so it's my usual. Then I added a cup of arborio rice and stirred, and thus began the stirring. 6 cups of veggie stock (you could do some wine some stock of course), and stir, add, stir, add, stir, add. You know the drill. Until all your stock is absorbed.

I was goats cheeseless, but feta isn't far off the salty cheese mark so I whacked about 100g of that in, and stirred through until melted, along with 1/4c of parmesan and some pepper. I didn't add salt, because the stock is already salty, as is the feta. You could mess around with taste here. I also instead of adding another knob of butter, added a generous splash of cream. Super creamy cheesy risotto. Then I topped it with my roasted tomato and some fresh continental parsley leaves.

Then I put it in my face. And oh my goodness. It's one of those eyes closed, savouring the taste moments. The roasted tomato just gives such a perfect compliment to the risotto, and the flavours are amazing. Drrrooool. Eat up!